Hedgehog Knits

Adventures in knitting from the eastern edge of Canada.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Jitterbugging

A couple of friends have been waiting to hear the story of a particular skein of yarn. Last summer, when I was still living in Ottawa. Leanne and Nancy introduced me to Wool 'N Things, a very posh little yarn boutique in the far east end of the city. At the time, my yarn budget as a grad student was pretty tight, so it was a rather dangerous excursion and my wallet did take quite a dent that day.

Aside from a few wonderful bits of silk (which I still haven't gotten up the courage or inspiration to touch), we each bought a different colourway of Colinette Jitterbug. I believe that they have both already made socks out of theirs. That was my plan too - a plain pair of ribbed socks to show off the gorgeous colour. Knowing that people tend to have yardage issues with this yarn, I got out my kitchen scale, and dutifully wound the skein into two equal balls. I even swatched, which I rarely bother with for socks. Even though the yarn is plump, I liked my swatch on 2.25 mm needles best, and decided to knit a pair of nice, dense, warm socks.

I got about this far (yes, that's a heel flap on a rather short sock):


When it became quite evident that, A) I was not going to have enough yarn left for a foot, and B) I wasn't really fond of the way the beautiful water-coloury variegation was pooling in diagonal stripes.

Hmm, what to do....

Rip it out and knit gloves!


Somehow, I have ended up with several pairs of mittens in my collection lately, but not a single pair of gloves to my name - a situation soon to be rectified. I'm completely winging it on 2.5 mm needles (2.25 mm for the ribbed cuff), and it looks like I'll even have a little bit of yarn left over. Phew.

The yarn is so pretty that I'm going to miss it when I'm done knitting!

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5 Comments:

Blogger Sarah said...

Oh they are looking great

I was thinking of mitts or gloves for my stashed Jbug as the wear of it in the socks I have made so far isn't great - seeing yours I'm convinced

2:08 a.m.  
Blogger Marianne said...

Fabulous choice and that glove is looking good!

8:34 a.m.  
Blogger Robin said...

The jitterbug looks so much better as gloves! Very pretty.

11:17 a.m.  
Blogger Glenna C said...

Awesome gloves, man! and what a good idea for the jitterbug.

12:48 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The JB looks MUCH better as gloves...and at least you'll know you have enough yardage. Although - you could have knit toe up :)

7:48 a.m.  

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